EFFECTS OF PLAYING MOBILE LEGENDS ON THE MENTAL AND PHYSICAL

HEALTH OF SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

 CHAPTER I

The Problem and Its Background

Our own life is profoundly subject to the technology that people have created. This

advancement of technology changed the ways we view life. It changed the way we travel,

the way we purchase products, the way we communicate, even the way we learn. As the

demands of people and the manner of life change, there is a strong interest in propelling

the kind of technology we use. There are more ways we have altered the way we live with

technology. These are just some of the basic ways that technology has affected and

transformed us. Thus, almost every single thing we use has been innovated to improve

standards, one great example is the “mobile phones.”

Recent developments and advancements in mobile phone use have led to a

dramatic shift in the mobile industry. The use of mobile phones has increased so

significantly that it has become one of the most dominant influences on society in today's

world. According to Statistical Research Department, the population that uses mobile

phone in the Philippines from 2014 was 63.2% and rapidly increased to 69.0% in 2019.

The mobile phone has come a long way since its inception in the early 1980s, when it

was the size of a small briefcase. Nowadays, however, the mobile phone is sleek, fitting

into the palm and offered in a rainbow of colors, full of features. Mobile phone users now

have a number of features to choose from: ring tones, browsers, wireless cameras,

instant messaging, video streaming, mobile music, TV clip playback, college entrance

exam preparation review, over-the-air music downloads, full-length videos and even

“mobile games”.
 Mobile games undoubtedly lead the gaming industry this year. Mobile games are

applications played on smartphones, tablets and other smart devices and gadgets. Some

mobile games are preinstalled in most mobile devices and others are downloadable via

app stores and other developers’ portals. Many are also available thru sharing via

Bluetooth, app sharing and other network connections. It comes in different features and

intended for different age brackets like kids, teen and adults. Among of those, mobile

games for all ages are the most well-known. It is an extremely popular source of

entertainment and players often spend a considerable huge amount of time playing them.

In today’s generation, mobile games continue to upgrade together with innovations made

on smart phones. Now there are smart phones that have built-in applications where the

user can download his or her desired games, as long as the phones are equipped with

AppStore for iOS phones and Play Store for Android users.

The most common users of mobile games are students, where majority of the

youth belong. Students play mobile games for their happiness and enjoyment. It is one of

their common pass times and group activities while on their free time. During the course

of a decade, numbers of relatively addicting mobile games were developed. Angry Birds

(2009), Plants vs. Zombies (2010), Fruit Ninja (2010), Temple Run (2011), Flappy Bird

(2013), Clash of Clans (2014) and Mobile Legends (2016) to name a few. Among them,

“Mobile Legends” has proven to be very popular nowadays.

According to Arellano of Yugatech, which supported by College of Arts and

Technology (CIIT Philippines), "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) is the lead game in

the Philippines. Mobile Legends is arguably one of the most popular mobile games

currently being played launched in 2014. While its premise is interesting enough, what
really keeps players glued to their smartphones are the updates from game developer

Moonton the middle name of Shanghai Moontoon Technology.

Students playing mobile games draw concerns among parents and teachers,

academic activities often times are being overlooked in lieu of playing mobile games.

Times that are meant to spend in educational doings, whether in home or school, are

wasted on playing mobile games. As noticed, there is a significant difference between

students’ behavior then and now. Before, students enjoy going on a group study at a

group mates’ house and doing academic projects with other classmates. Nowadays,

students like other youths who play mobile games prefer staying indoors spending time

on gadgets playing mobile games. All they need is a decent internet connection and their

smart phones. Consequently, they miss out on having real person to person relationships

and spending quality bonding time with their family and friends.

It is very alarming that at home, researchers hear about children who skipped

meals because of playing Mobile Legends. They also encountered children who have

sleepless nights because of too much playing. Too much playing of Mobile Legends

releases high dosage of dopamine which leads to “addiction”. According to Philippine

Daily Inquirer, a high level of dopamine makes one experience pleasure. Repeated

exposure to an addictive substance or behavior such as playing mobile legends

conditions the brain cells in key areas like the prefrontal cortex—the area of the brain

involved in planning and executing tasks—to crave and go after the substance or behavior

causing the release of dopamine. The end result is being “addicted” to the source of

pleasure, and in our children’s case—addiction to mobile legends.

 Dr. H. Takeuchi, from the Division of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience,

Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, at the Tohoku University, in Japan,

published in Molecular Psychiatry, their study showing that more hours of mobile gaming

in children are linked to lower verbal IQ and adverse changes in the brain’s white matter.

These effects are likely to lead to long-term maldevelopment of verbal functions and other

unfavorable changes in the dopamine-producing system of the children’s brains. The

researchers reported that the more hours spent on mobile games, the stronger the

association with lower verbal IQ and subtle changes on brain areas—described as loss

of white matter integrity—suggestive of an addiction pattern. These changes were

detected after three years of follow-up.

Researchers also found out that there were children who exposed on too much

radiation of the screen suffered from different physical risks. Those children encountered

head and back pains, insomnia and even being underweight or overweight. In the report

of Philippine Star, gadgets have become the first thing the child grabs on waking and the

last to look at before dozing off. Watching screens and fiddling with apps at the dining

table distracts from meals. Consequently, affected are not only sleep and active play, but

also attention, nutrition, and posture. Those lead to insomnia; back, neck and headaches;

and under or overweight. Long-term adverse effects could be obesity and imbalanced

diets.

Researchers also encountered children who play mobile legends excessively. The

World Health Organization report jibed with earlier findings on the harm of excessive

screen time. In the United States and Europe specialists have warned of “screen

dependency disorder”. SDD can manifest in children as young as three to four years, the
American Academy of Pediatrics warned in 2018. But those older, because leniently

allowed or capable of sneaking more than one hour of screen time a day, are prone too.

Philippine doctors too have warned about SDD. A health undersecretary noted a high

prevalence of myopia (nearsightedness) and dry eyes resulting from long screen time.

Children engrossed with the glow of screens close-up are unable fully to develop distance

vision, and tend to blink less. The cornea, the shiny outer layer of the eye, can be

damaged too.

From the given instances, the researchers decided to team up and conduct a point

of reference research to gather factual and scientific information regarding the effects of

the Mobile Legends on the students’ mental and physical health, enrolled in certain school

who were engaged in playing Mobile Legends.

In the recent article of Sunstar Cagayan De Oro by Emano, recent studies show

that there is also an effect of Mobile Legends to the behavior and health of students. Most

common effects are distraction while performing another important activity, affecting

social interaction, sleep problems and loss of productivity. It is on this light that the

researchers will conduct a study about the effects of playing Mobile Legends to the

behavior and health of senior high school students. The researchers believed that

studying the effects of Mobile Legends may help the senior students to be aware of its

health risks that come with its prolonged use. This study will deliver the pros and cons

and other aspects of the changes in mental and physical behavior of the players. The

researchers also believed to solve a certain problem encountered in playing mobile

legends by providing scientific and factual solutions. They also want to develop programs
that may help the students involving the negative effects in mental and physical health of

playing mobile legends.

For this study, researchers will conduct the study on current senior high school

students from the New Era High School located at Tandang Sora, Quezon City. The

researchers chose this school due to accessibility and location, being located in the heart

of the city ergo having reliable internet connection. The high number of students in the

said school playing mobile legends encourage the researchers to conduct the study. The

researchers’ relative who studies in the said school learned to play mobile legends when

started study at that school. The case lead to excessively playing mobile legends that

caused risks in physical and mental health. Therefore, researchers eager to expand their

further study on that school.

Conceptual and Functional Definition

Backgrounder or the Historical Development of the Phenomenon

A Mobile Game is played on a mobile phone, smartphone / tablet, smartwatch,

PDA, portable media player or graphics calculator. The first documented mobile phone

game was the 1994 Tetris variant on the Hagenuk MT-2000 Computer. One of the famous

mobile games today is the Mobile Legends. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is a multiplayer

online battle arena (MOBA) mobile game developed and published by Shanghai Moonton

Technology.

We knew that excessive playing of mobile games might lead to variety of risks. It

is on this light that the researchers aim to provide information regarding with the negative
effects of mobile legends in mental and physical health of the players. However, studies

have shown that obsessive video gamers know how to anticipate dangers in virtual

worlds. The World Health Organization says they now should be on guard for a danger in

the real world: spending too much time playing. This was reported in CBS news. In its

latest review of a manual for the classification of diseases, the U.N. health agency said

that playing video games compulsively now counts as a state of mental health. The

statement reinforced some parents ' concerns but prompted critics to warn that it could

risk stigmatizing too many young players on video. WHO said classifying "gaming

disorder" as a separate addiction will help governments, families and health care workers

be more vigilant and prepared to identify the risks.

According to the WHO, gaming disorder is characterized by impaired gaming

behavior control; in other words, Gentile says, gamers know that they should stop —

doing their homework, meeting social obligations, or, for instance, having a good night's

sleep — but they feel unable to do so. Therefore, it is really timely and relevant to conduct

a study on the negative effects of mobile legends to students mental and physical health.

Research Locale

The study will be conducted at New Era University this Academic Year 2019 –

2020. New Era University (NEU) is a private educational institution in the Philippines, run

by the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC). Although it is linked with the INC, it is a non-sectarian

university. Its main campus is at New Era, Quezon City, within the Central Office Complex

of the INC. Aside from its flagship Quezon City campus, it has three campuses around
the Philippines, including one in San Fernando City, Pampanga, in Lipa City, Batangas,

in General Santos City and soon in Santa Maria, Bulacan.

Founded in 17 June 1975, it was known as the New Era Educational Institute, and

was located in Echague, Quiapo, Manila, along Carlos Palanca St. It initially offered only

secondary education (high school) but later expanded in 1977 to serve technical and

vocational courses under its Center for Livelihood and Skills Training (CLST). It also offers

graduate programmes.

In 1981, it was renamed New Era College after the Ministry of Education, Culture

and Sports (MECS) granted collegiate status, and later in June 1995, to its present name,

New Era University, when the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) granted

university status.

It is run by the INC for the educational needs of INC members although it accepts

enrollments from non-INC members as well. Formerly, under the university umbrella, it

ran the College of Evangelical Ministry (now Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church of Christ) School

for Ministers), where the INC trains male members to become ministers.

The University is a member of National Athletic Association of Schools, Colleges

and Universities (NAASCU), an athletic association of colleges and universities in the

Philippines, established in 2001. It is a member of Philippine Association for

Technological Education (PATE) and is affiliated with Eagle Broadcasting Corporation.

Research Interest

Mobile gaming is clearly a popular form of entertainment, with mobile gamers

collectively spending 3 billion hours per week in front of their screens. A growing body of
evidence, however, shows that mobile gaming can affect the brain and, furthermore,

cause changes in many regions of the brain.

Scientists have recently collected and summarized results from 116 scientific

studies to determine how mobile games can influence our brains and behaviors. The

findings of their review were published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Evidence

also demonstrates that playing mobile games increases the size and competence of parts

of the brain responsible for visuospatial skills - a person's ability to identify visual and

spatial relationships among objects. In long-term gamers and individuals who had

volunteered to follow a mobile game training plan, the right hippocampus was enlarged.

Researchers have discovered that video gaming can be addictive - a phenomenon

known as "Internet gaming disorder." Oxford University's Andy Przybylski, director of

research at the Oxford Internet Institute, studies how mobile games impact our mental

health. His findings show just 0.3% of gamers might experience problems controlling the

time they spend playing mobile games.

Therefore, researchers long-term research interests are to try to bring awareness

to every student on the negative effects of mobile legends. They also dedicated to spread

awareness of the possible solutions for those students experiencing the effects.

Objectives of the Study

This study is intended to know the negative effects of mobile legends among the

Senior High School students in New Era University on their mental and physical health.

It also aims to help the parents to be informed about the impacts their children obtain from

mobile legends.
Statement of the Problem

Everyone who plays video games has a different reason for playing, and the usage

of the game leads to different effects for each individual. Childhood upbringing, peer

influences, pressures at school and family issues are all factors that have a strong

connection with the effects of gaming on individuals. Video games maybe therapeutic for

some people, but the small amount of people who are negatively affected by gaming

impact are many.

Therefore, this study aims to know the negative effects of Mobile Legends on the

health of Senior High Schools Students in New Era University. Specifically, this study

seeks answers to the following questions:

1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of:

1.1. Age;

1.2. Gender;

1.3. Educational Status;

1.4. Length of time the respondents play mobile legends (in terms of

months);

1.5. Length of time the respondents play online games in a week (in terms

of hours); and

1.6. Amount of money the respondents spend for mobile legends (per day)?

2. What are the negative effects on mental health of mobile legends?

3. What are the negative effects on physical health of mobile legends?

4. What are the solutions and recommendation for those experiencing the

negative effects?
Theoretical Framework

Several theoretical frameworks have provided useful insights for understanding

negative mobile game effects. Two different approaches are described in this section: (1)

the general aggression model and the general learning model and (2) the five dimensions

of video game effects perspective.

The general aggression model has guided a large amount of research in the media

violence domain, including research on violent video game effects. The GAM integrates

key ideas from a number of more specific models of aggression and provides a holistic

framework for understanding how social, personological, and biological factors interact to

bring about aggressive behavior. GAM can be used to understand both short-term effects

of media violence on aggression in the immediate situation and long-term processes that

aid the development of an aggressive personality.

According to GAM, media violence can increase the likelihood of aggression in the

short term through its influence on a person's present internal state, which includes

affective, cognitive, and arousal states. For example, playing a violent video game can

prime aggressive thoughts, increase hostile affect, and create physiological arousal. In

turn, internal state variables aired appraisal and decision-making processes. Decision

making can result either in impulsive or in thoughtful action, which can be aggressive or

nonaggressive. For example, if provoked immediately after playing a violent game, the

likelihood of choosing an aggressive response is increased due to heightened arousal

and primed aggressive thoughts and feelings. Factors that increase the accessibility of

aggressive thoughts or feelings tend to increase the likelihood of aggressive behavior

emerging from the decision process. Once a behavioral response has been chosen, this
feeds back into the situation and can influence later thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Overtime, the outcomes of each encounter can exert an influence on one's personality

(e.g., strengthening habitual patterns of responding), creating a feedback loop. Through

this cycle, repeated long-term exposure to media violence leads to the development and

rehearsal of aggressive knowledge structures, causing harmful consequences such as

more positive attitudes toward violence, greater expectations of aggression by others,

hostile attribution bias, and desensitization to violence.

The general learning incorporates multiple domain-specific learning theories into

one larger meta-theory. The GLM describes how multiple learning mechanisms (e.g.,

habituation, classical conditioning, observational learning, etc.) can work both serially and

in parallel to produce learning outcomes from any experience. In the long term, the GLM

describes how beliefs, attitudes, and affective traits (such as trait empathy and trait

hostility) can be changed and developed as a result of learning experiences. The

developmental and learning processes posited by GLM can be applied not only to

aggression, but to any kind of social behavior. For example, much of the empirical support

for GLM comes from the literature on media effects on prosocial behavior and helping.

The five dimensions of video game effects approach posits that video games can

affect players on at least five different dimensions—amount of play, content, context,

structure, and mechanics. Each dimension can produce specific types of effects. The

amount of play can produce effects regardless of game content by displacing time players

spend in other activities. The amount of game play has been associated with lower

academic performance, risk of childhood obesity, and gaming addiction

 Game content has been shown to lead to content-specific learning. Educational

games have been successfully used to teach a number of school subjects. Violent video

games have been shown to increase aggression, whereas prosocial video games have

been shown to increase empathy and helping. The context of video game play may

moderate effects of other game characteristics on specific outcomes. For example, it is

possible that playing a game with friends may change the way video game content affects

players.

The way a video game is structured and displayed on a screen may significantly

affect visuospatial processing. For example, a number of studies have demonstrated that

playing fast-paced video games may have positive effects on a number of visual and

spatial skills, such as faster visual reaction times, and improved target localization and

mental rotation. Finally, game mechanics can lead to improvements in specific motor

skills. For example, video game play experience has been shown to predict surgical skill

among laparoscopic surgeons. Exercise games have been successfully used in physical

therapy. Because research on video game effects has often been contentious, this

approach is useful for helping to explain why different studies appear to find different

types of effects. Many findings that initially appear contradictory are often focused on

different levels of analysis, and are in fact complementary when examined through this

dimensional approach.
Conceptual Framework

Based on the presented theory, the researcher formulated the conceptual

framework which shows the Coomb’s System Approach consisting of input, process and

output.

The input frame consists the demographic profile of respondents through surveys

and the negative effects of the mobile legends using interviews and researchers-made

questionnaires. The process frame includes the assessment of the demographic profile,

presentation, analysis and interpretation of data. The outcome of the study will be the

negative effects of mobile legends and the recommendation that will give based on the

data gathered.

Research Paradigm
 A paradigm below shows the variables and processes that will use in study. The

paradigm shows the materials used in the study. The output is Negative Effects of Mobile

Games (Mobile Legends) to the mental and physical health of a SHS Students for the

descriptive output.

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

Survey The researchers will Negative Effects of

assess the Playing Mobile
demographic profile Legends on the
Interviews of the respondents Mental and Physical
through survey. Health of Senior
High School
The researchers will
Researchers-Made Students
conduct interviews.
Questionnaires
The researchers will
sort researchers-
made
questionnaires.

Significance of the Study

This study will be valuable and significant to players, parents, readers and future

researchers.

Players. This study is primarily important to players, for it will give them information

about the negative effects they may get from mobile legends.

Parents. This study will help the parents to have enough knowledge about the

negative effects of mobile legends among their children who play the game.

Readers. This study will help the readers to have the understanding about the

negative effects of mobile legends and possible solutions on those experiencing it.
 Future Researchers. The result of the study will be serving as a guide of other

researchers who would embark conduct of study of similar nature.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

This study aims to know the negative effects of mobile games (Mobile Legends) to

the mental and physical health of SHS students. This study is limited only to the players

of mobile games (Mobile Legends) in SHS department. The respondents will be the

selected enrolled SHS Students from New Era University.

Definition of Terms after full edit